Vasilopita - Greek New Year’s Cake

Being of Greek descent, we have a LOT of traditions. Religious traditions, “Yiayia-isms”, nicknames and so much more. One of my favorite traditions and childhood memories is our Greek New Year’s Cake - Vasilopita. My mom would make this every year and we would cut it at midnight on New Year’s Eve. This was our first breakfast/meal every New Year’s Day and we all anxiously looked forward to the Vasilopita cutting to see who would get the coin and would have good luck for the year ahead.

Here’s how the story/origins of Vasilopita goes:

Vasilopita is associated with a legend of Saint Basil. According to one story, St. Basil called on the citizens of Caesarea to raise a ransom payment to stop the siege of the city. Each member of the city gave whatever they had in gold and jewelry. When the ransom was raised, the enemy was so embarrassed by the act of collective giving that he called off the siege without collecting payment. St. Basil was then tasked with returning the unpaid ransom, but had no way to know which items belonged to which family. So he baked all of the jewelry into loaves of bread and distributed the loaves to the city, and by a miracle, each citizen received their exact share, as the legend goes.

Here is my family’s recipe for our Vasilopita. Once it is baked, we cut pieces in this order and turn each piece over to check for the coin as we go along:

1. Church

2. Jesus

3. Virgin Mary/Theotokos

4. Saint Basil

5. Our House

6. Members of the family from head of household down to youngest child

   This cake is SO yummy and great with red wine at night or hot coffee in the morning!

Vasilopita (New Year’s Cake)

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

6 egg whites

6 egg yolks

1 pinch of salt

2 sticks of butter

2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

Juice of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon lemon peelings

4 teaspoons coignac (Metaxa or Remy or whatever)

Powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Stir together flour and baking powder

2. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with salt until stiff

3. In another bowl: (mixing continuously)

Beat butter for 5-10 minutes until white

4. Pour in sugar slowly

5. Pour in yolks one-by-one

6. Slowly pour in flour and baking powder mix

7. Pour in milk, lemon and cognac

8. Stop mixer, pour in whites very slowly and carefully (mix with spoon); wrap a coin in aluminum foil and drop into the batter

9. Cook for 300 degrees for one hour

10. Allow to cool completely and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of the cake

DON’T FORGET TO PUT THE COIN IN THE BATTER BEFORE BAKING!